Photo. Kart 7 - 10 year old Bo Hill come home 3rd in Cadet Rok Class. Kart 33 - Matt Butchart won the Rotax Max Heavy Class and was runner up in the KZ2 class.

Photo Credit. Mikey Mayers, Vacant Image

Butchart Wins South Island Title

Kartsport Nelson club mates Matt Butchart and Bo Hill lead home the 11 strong team from Nelson in the results from the South Island Karting Championship held in perfect conditions in Blenheim over Labour Weekend. There were 8 classes contested over the weekend with 4 raced each day. Butchart continued his recent run of good form in his favoured KZ2 class on Saturday with a strong 2nd place overall to multiple time NZ champ Matt Hamilton from Christchurch. In the Rotax Max lights class, Brightwaters Hannah Ross finished 11th in her 1st South Islands in the class. Also competing on Saturday were Mahana sisters Meg and Pip Coakley who finished 7th and 8th in the Vortex Mini Rok class.

Sunday saw Butchart competing in the Rotax Max Heavy class. This was a new class for him and the 1st time he had competed in it at any level. It was the one of the biggest fields of the weekend with 16 drivers, including some drivers from the North Island also electing to run in Blenheim. In a great display of driving he dominated qualifying and went on to win every race to become the 1st Kartsport Nelson driver to earn a South Island title since 2006. Also competing in the same class was Nelsons Kent Yarrall who came home a well-deserved 4th and Brendan Gridley and Kevin Barker who unfortunately got involved in an opening lap incident and dropped them both out of what had been strong performances in the opening races to finish 9th and 13th respectively. 10 year old Bo Hill from Mapua and Brightwaters Josh Bradley were competing in the Cadet Rok class. With the final race having to be red flagged at mid distance due to a crash, Josh was unfortunate to be run into from behind and cause a large amount of damage to his kart. But quick work from his support crew saw him back on the grid for the restart. Hill drove an awesome race to finish 3rd with Bradley also putting in a great race to come in 4th.